In accordance with the terms of the Clarke-Asimov treaty, the second-best science writer dedicates this book to the second-best science-fiction writer. [dedication to Isaac Asimov from Arthur C. Clarke in his book Report on Planet Three]
Interpretation
This quote highlights the mutual respect and acknowledgment between two prominent figures in science fiction and science writing.
Arthur C. Clarke's dedication to Isaac Asimov serves as a testament to the camaraderie and admiration that exists among great writers within the same genre. By referring to himself as the 'second-best' science writer and Asimov as the 'second-best' science fiction writer, Clarke humorously downplays their achievements while simultaneously honoring their contributions to literature and science. This quote reflects the humility and respect that often characterize the relationships between peers in intellectual fields.
In practice
In a literary discussion, one might cite this quote to illustrate how great writers often recognize and celebrate each other's talents.
Nowhere in space will we rest our eyes upon the familiar shapes of trees and plants, or any of the animals that share our world. Whatsoever life we meet will be as strange and alien as the nightmare creatures of the ocean abyss, or of the insect empire whose horrors are normally hidden from us by their microscopic scale.
As our own species is in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying.
It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.
The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.
It was the mark of a barbarian to destroy something one could not understand.
My favorite definition of an intellectual: 'Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence'.
That's why we read fiction, isn't it? To remind us that whatever we suffer, we're not the only ones?
Under adversity, under oppression, the words begin to fail, the easy words begin to fail. In order to convey things accurately, the human being is almost forced to find the most precise words possible, which is a precondition for literature.
All great novels, all true novels, are bisexual.
To encounter 'Beowulf' is like taking a sledgehammer to a quarry face. You must bang in there.
I am a firm believer that a good plot makes for a fun enough read, but it's not what binds us. If we don't care about the characters, we won't care - not in a lasting way - about what's happening to them.
People without hope not only don't write novels, but what is more to the point, they don't read them.
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